


Colorful Chemistry

by daddyoungho



Series: sunlight and moonshine [2]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Colors, Crack, Domestic, Eventual Romance, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Friends to Lovers, Huang Ren Jun & Na Jaemin Are Best Friends, M/M, Mentioned Seo Youngho | Johnny, Multi, Not What It Looks Like, Shy Lee Donghyuck | Haechan, Slow Burn, Soft Mark Lee (NCT), Sweet Mark Lee (NCT), haechan is shy and cute, mark is a genius apparently, soulmate au that you never asked for
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-11
Updated: 2019-06-04
Packaged: 2020-01-11 08:07:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18426483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daddyoungho/pseuds/daddyoungho
Summary: “What’s pink?”Renjun sighs and rolls his eyes dramatically, “You know- like bubblegum or flamingos? Pink lemonade?”“Pink lemonade? But Johnny told me lemons were yellow- is he lying to me?”In which everyone has a soulmate and Mark Lee is colorblind and only sees one kind of color at a time.





	1. One

**Author's Note:**

> a/n:  
> y'all i know i've been gone but this one has been cooking for almost a month now and i think it's about time i posted this for the markhyuc enthusiasts out there :)))))

Mark slowly blinked awake, staring at his dull and grayscale ceiling. He sighed softly and rolled over on his stomach, his face buried in the cooling sheets and his blonde hair in a messy tuft on his head. He raised his head only for a moment to stare at his alarm clock, the bright red digits displayed 6:01, a precise 59 minutes away till he had to walk to school. Truthfully he didn’t want to get up today, it was only Wednesday and the week had been going so goddamn slow that he wanted to just throw himself out the window, but it was partly his fault because he managed an all nighter two nights ago and he had five hours of sleep just last night.

 

Essentially, he only had five hours of sleep for the last 48 hours and it made his head pound to no avail. But he gets up anyway, about eight minutes later and trudges his way to the bathroom. He suddenly feels thankful that he had leftovers and made a late night run to the 24-hour supermarket just a block away. Mark didn’t have to worry about cooking any ounce of breakfast this morning as he took his time washing up. As he blinked the grogginess out of his eyes, he stared at the mirror, everything was grayscale except for his ruby towel and ruby eyes but also a section of the shower curtain and the cherry blossom design stitched on it. He had grown so used to the color, that dark ruby that he detested until he understood the meaning of it at the tender age of eight.10

 

Everything was grayscale save for some colors, sometime before he turned 16 he started seeing shades of orange. From tigers, fire, carrots, bronze and even honey- all of it stood out to him. Then sometime after that it became brown and that’s when he learned that his friend Jaemin’s favorite drink, coffee, was brown. It wasn’t long after that he started seeing red and everything close to red, particularly a bright candy red that stood out to him and almost made his eyes hurt and thankfully it was back to brown for a while. Then to a striking purple, the first color he saw was grape jam then everything remotely purple was colored. Amidst the dynamic changes of colors, he eventually became used to it and no longer complained to his friends about the whole ordeal. They had their own dilemmas to deal with, starting with the loud-mouth and overly sweet Na Jaemin, his close junior friend, who would continuously tell Mark about his dreams every few nights- ranging from sad to the happiest moments in life. Then his college and childhood friend, Johnny who would swoon left and right about the occasional sentences and beautiful sketches that would appear on his forearm.

 

Yes, Mark was absolutely positive that his soulmate was just as strange as he himself couldn’t diagnose the effects of his ever-changing colorblindness. Jaemin’s soulmate seemed to have a bright and vivid childhood as Jaemin himself and Johnny? Johnny had an amazingly artistic soulmate that would never stop drawing because each day, the older man had new temporary tattoos being continuously drawn on his arms. Mark often wondered why his vision was limited to shades of color during different times instead of dreaming like Jaemin or having beautiful inked arms like Johnny. He slightly envied them from time to time while he sulked in his more or less monochromatic world.

 

Mark acted like it never affected him, but at times he’d be amazed when he’d go to the corner store and get to see the new shades of ice cream flavors in the freezer or the colored isles of boxes and containers whenever he left for errands. He was always curious as to what the color of mint chocolate chip or mango looked like, Johnny simply told him that it was a pastel green and yellow, in turn, Mark became frustrated because he couldn’t comprehend the green and yellow because of his limited colored vision. And so cookies and cream became his favorite ice cream flavor because he was told that it was actually black and white, colors that he didn’t struggle to see his entire life.

 

Nevertheless, the eighteen-year-old carried on with his Wednesday and arrived in school a bit earlier than usual. He was not a studious person by choice, but he always preferred hanging around in the library to read because he found that reading was him in his natural habitat. It painted worlds for him in his mind and although he couldn’t comprehend colors like sky blue, olive green or bright yellow lemons, he still tried. He read everywhere he could and even listened to audiobooks during class or various websites on his phone just to read, because of that, he was seemed silent and stoic to most. It’s not like it mattered, it was his last year of high school and although he’d miss Jaemin’s smiley face and his friend Renjun ranting about his random food cravings, he was so very excited about leaving high school and managing life more independently during college someday.

 

He ruffled his blonde hair when he heard clamors of students filling the halls, talking and laughing raucously as usual. Mark pulls out his phone to look at the time, 7:44, in approximately a minute Jaemin and Renjun would find him in the same spot in the library. He silently puts away the book he was reading back in the same spot on the shelf and comes out to see the two approaching the table as usual. Jaemin is smiley and sunny while Renjun scrolled through his phone, Mark nods in quick greeting.

 

“‘Sup?”

 

Renjun hums as he sits down, “Nothing much. Nana here is talking my ears off as usual- not like I’m not used to it or whatever.”

 

Jaemin lands a soft punch on his arm and Renjun feigns hurt, knowing that Jaemin wouldn’t even hurt a fly. The three finally walk off and talk in the hall, mostly Jaemin and Renjun were engaged as they were in classes together while Mark had two free periods during his senior year because he had already taken everything. He drops the two off in their first-period class, Chemistry. The same class he entered during Junior year, but studied AP Chemistry instead because maybe he wanted to challenge himself, or rather be close to committing mental suicide because of how vastly different it was from a regular chemistry class. He somehow passed the class with flying colors because he was Mark Lee, after all, the kid who always read and never studied yet managed to get the highest marks. His seniors at the time either hated him or flocked him for the reason that he was so effortlessly smart, translating teacher language into dumbass-high-schooler lingo at each new lesson. The one thing that Mark regretted was not being able to see the little flame show his teacher showed, that when setting fire to certain chemicals, it would glow different colors. He was disappointed to realize that he could only see the red flame on the glass dish and not the yellow, blue and green that the others wow-ed about, while every other flame looked black and white to him except for the red one.

 

“See you guys at the cafeteria-” Mark waves briefly and turns to walk away until his former teacher calls him.

 

“Mark Lee!”

 

The senior turned with a raised brow and approached his AP Chem teacher with curiosity, the rest of his present class gawking at him as usual, “M’am?”

 

She smiled as Mark approached her side and he was suspicious because of the hesitant look in her eyes.

 

“Mark, you’ve been such a great student last year and still the best. You know, Jaemin and Renjun are even doing really good thanks to you.”

 

He smiles sheepishly and replies with a low thanks as she refers to the trio’s friendship and Mark helping them with the classes he had already passed.

 

“You see-” And there it is, the look in her eyes coming back again, “I know you already passed this class, although, I have a student that isn’t doing too well… He’s a bit, stubborn? I can’t get him to understand what I’m trying to teach. I figured that since you make my AP course seem so easy, maybe you could tutor him for a bit before finals.” She says with a hushed voice.

 

The homeroom bell had long since rung, but Mark didn’t really mind, he only had Art at this time and finished the first project two weeks ahead of schedule. Mark weighed the request in his mind as his teacher mentioned that he didn’t need to do it, she genuinely thought that Mark would be a great tutor because he basically did the same to the rest of his classmates. He really had no problem relearning Chemistry anyway, he remembered most concepts and left out anything that gave him too much of a headache like Thermochemistry, he mostly relied on his photographic memory because he never learned much with just explanations. So he decided, why not? Senior year was so much of a breeze that he didn’t really mind.

 

“Oh thank you- so very much Mark Lee- I’ll be sure to include this in your recommendation letter before you graduate!” She smiles gratefully before handing him a short list of topics and handwritten marks on it.

 

She looks over the class with a slight frown on her face, “He’s not here today. What a coincidence. He is stubborn like I said, although he’s a very sweet and bubbly student. I’ll just email you two once I get a hold of him.”

 

Mark leaves the class with a final wave before going to his own, his earphones were plugged in as he listened to the narration of the book ‘Demian’ by Hermann Hesse. He skims over the sheet he was given and his eyes particularly linger at the name written on top, Haechan. He was a senior too apparently, but Mark never really paid attention to who is who and so he didn’t know who this Haechan was. He gets a text from the group chat with Renjun and Jaemin, asking him about what their teacher was talking to him for, so Mark honestly replies.

 

**_TinkerHuang_ ** **_:_ **

**_yoooo_ **

**_SeniorLongAss_ ** **_:_ **

**_wht_ **

**_Nanasplit_ ** **_:_ **

**_what was tht earlier ??_ **

**_SeniorLongAss_ ** **_:_ **

**_ohh u mean the talk? smth abt tutoring someone_ **

**_TinkerHuang_ ** **_:_ **

**_( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)_ **

**_Nanasplit_ ** **_:_ **

**_( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)_ **

**_SeniorLongAss_ ** **_:_ **

**_potassium_ **

**_TinkerHuang_ ** **_:_ **

**_ew nerd_ **

**_SeniorLongAss_ ** **_:_ ** **[Read]**

**_TinkerHuang_ ** **_:_ **

**_BIJ HOW DARE U_ **

**_SeniorLongAss_ ** **_:_ **

**_¯\\_(ツ)_/¯_ **

**_TinkerHuang_ ** **_:_ **

**_dick_ **

**_SeniorLongAss_ ** **_:_ **

**_i didn’t ask abt what u like stfu and pay attention headass_ **

**_Nanasplit_ ** **_:_ **

**_ooF instant death-_ **

**_TinkerHuang_ ** **_:_ **

**_shut UP_ **

**_why yall gotta be so mean tf_ **

**_SeniorLongAss_ ** **_:_ **

**_excuse u,, both of u started it_ **

**_anyways_ **

**_she asked me to tutor this kid haechan_ **

**_bc she thinks im great ig_ **

**_or whatever_ **

**_never seen him a day in my life so oh well_ **

**_Nanasplit_ ** **_:_ **

**_ohh righttt_ **

**_he’s not here today idk why_ **

**_lemme text him--_ **

**_TinkerHuang_ ** **_:_ **

**_i think u scared him away with ur ugli_ **

**_SeniorLongAss_ ** **_:_ **

**_u know renjun_ **

**_i wonder if u rly deserve a soulmate sometimes_ **

**_TinkerHuang_ ** **_:_ **

**_HEY_ **

**_MARK LEE_ **

**_U A BULLY_ **

**_DAT HURT :”(_ **

**_SeniorLongAss_ ** **_:_ ** **[Read]**

**_Nanasplit_ ** **_:_ **

**_ooohhhhh f a t a l i t y_ **

 

Mark is lazy as the next few days roll by, going through his morning routine as usual and taking his time as he listens to lofi music when he walks through the empty hallways. Jaemin and Renjun meet him like always, but Jaemin seems to stop and smile cheesily as his eyes scan over Mark. The older raises a brow and Jaemin proceeds to nudge Renjun, who also smiles at him, Mark is just plain confused.

 

“What?”

 

Jaemin cackles, “You’re wearing pink today.”

 

Mark blinks and looks down at his hoodie, not understanding his description because all he saw was a light gray.

 

“What’s pink?”

 

Renjun sighs and rolls his eyes dramatically, “You know- like bubblegum or flamingos? Pink lemonade?”

 

“Pink lemonade? But Johnny told me lemons were yellow- is he lying to me?”

 

And at first, it seemed comical, the way Mark’s eyes widened when he mentioned pink lemonade. But Jaemin and Renjun seemed to frown a bit sadly, trading glances at each other before they brush the topic off. He drops them off the same class and is mostly stuck waiting for that student that his former teacher told him about, it was already Friday which meant that he wouldn’t see the kid either and his teacher feels a bit embarrassed and sorry for the latter who continued their disappearing act. She had mentioned that he showed up after school yesterday, but Mark had already gone home by the time so she couldn’t inform him right away.

 

“I spoke with him and he said he’ll only agree to my offer if he didn’t have to attend my class. He said he ‘didn’t want to look stupid’ since all his classmates seemed to know about it.” She sighs a bit dejectedly.

 

Mark chuckled lightly and shrugged, finding the boy’s antics amusing with an exception of the teacher herself. She is so very worried, but he guesses that’s what happens when you’re an adult with children. Although she was very brutal about grading and school policies, she felt for the students who just couldn’t do well despite their deepest determination and often helped them out on her own terms. He doesn’t hear about the troubled student again until Tuesday, the teacher hands him a note that he had written to Mark and the older is intrigued because it had almost been an entire week and he still doesn’t know what the kid looks like. It’s not like he was desperate to know, even Jaemin who had his phone number texted him and he still refused to come to class.

 

And so Mark is now on his way to the Media Center, his old chemistry textbook in his grasp as he stares down the hallway with boredom in his eyes. He finally makes it in and recalls that the note told him ‘Haechan’ would be by the Nonfiction section, sitting by the courtyard entrance. Mark isn’t surprised when he sees no one sitting on the table by the pretty garden just outside the glass, his earphones are echoing lofi music and he places the textbook down clearly unaware of the curious gaze by the nearest bookshelf, sitting and taking out the book he was currently reading from his bag. The stranger, namely Haechan, is staring at the blonde senior in curiosity and borderline intimidation- yet still somehow drawn to him. His teacher told him about a tutor last week, but he didn’t realize that his tutor was the stoic Canadian-Korean senior who practically had earphones on his entire lifetime. Haechan was quite livid and took a mental note to smack Jaemin over the head for not telling him more about it.

 

He gulps and slowly creeps away from the safety of the bookshelf, chewing his lip as he silently makes his way to the small table with his bag slung over his shoulder. Mark is surprised when the said stranger sits down across from him, blinking a bit as he tries to get a proper look at him (damn the stupid sun rays that were blinding around the boy’s figure, it was like he was the sun itself). And so he blinks, his breath suddenly gets caught in his throat when he realizes that he could see the color of the boy’s hair. It was a pretty shade of crimson, a specific shade he learned after looking it up so long ago. Mark carefully pulls off one of his earbuds and the boy shifts, feeling a bit uncomfortable under his deep stare.

 

“D-Do you know Mrs. K-Kang?”

 

Mark lets the soft words register in his brain before he shakes his head and answers, “Oh- yeah. Are you Haechan by any chance? I was told that he’d be here.”

 

The boy nods, barely looking him in the eye and Mark swears he could see a tinge of the lightest of red decorating the apples of his cheeks, “Y-Yeah.. Donghyuck, you can call me Donghyuck.”

 

“Ok.” Mark says simply, but soon betrays it when he leans closer on the table and is unable to help but ogle his crimson hair, “Your hair, I think it’s really pretty.”

 

“What?!” Donghyuck suddenly flares as he stands up with an angry pout that Mark tries so hard to be afraid of.

 

The older sits back in a relaxed manner as he dog-ears his book, staring at the suddenly furious boy, “I said, I think it’s pretty, would you rather me say it’s ugly?”

 

And the younger hesitates before sitting back down, “Sorry… It’s just that everyone teases me about it.”

 

And Mark only laughs softly, “And you believe them? Don’t be so butthurt. Besides, I don’t really see a lot of pretty things often.”

 

Haechan is a flustered mess in front of the nonchalant boy as he takes out his Chemistry notes and worksheets, he clears his throat and pushes the page closer to Mark, pointing at the question.

 

“Well,” Mark reads the question over carefully before explaining, ”CCl4… which is Carbon Tetrachloride. Uh. Carbon in the middle and four chlorides with which all share a set of electrons.”

 

And Donghyuck stares at him as if he had grown three heads, “What? How was I supposed to know that?”

 

Mark scratches his head and shrugs, “You do know your elements right? And how to label them correctly?”

 

At that, Donghyuck is silent and staring at him, Mark sighs before pushing the paper aside and reaching for his notebook. But he’s shocked to find almost little to nothing written in it, he even felt apprehensive about the boy passing his finals if he couldn’t get the basics down.

 

“You’ve got all the formulas and conversions here at least, but I don’t see any material on… molecular bonds and how to properly label them...”

 

Mark mumbles to himself as he unconsciously flips through the textbook to the indicated chapter and points at the highlighted words and small charts along the pages.

 

“Write these down, these are the suffixes and prefixes. Also, these are the common chemical combinations you should know too.”

 

Donghyuck watches his face carefully and there doesn’t seem to be a trace of mocking or joking in his features and so he carefully slides just a bit closer to his side, writing down the indicated notes and listening to Mark’s explanation. Some things flew right over his head, but he absorbs a lot of everything he explained as he took back the sheet of paper they were going over.

 

“So… For Carbon Tetrachloride, it would be four with Carbon in the center?” Donghyuck asks shyly, suddenly expecting Mark to laugh at the dubious answer.

 

But he nods and smiles, “Yeah. You’re right. Now all you have to do is-”

 

He stares at the blank space and freezes when Mark suddenly leans closer, only to grab the Periodic Table sheet by Donghyuck’s side, the latter is flustered once again at the unexpected distance closing between them.

 

“Find the electrons and dot them, if it shares some, then you draw a line to the outer elements.”

 

And that day, Donghyuck finally understands how to correctly name a combination of elements and how to draw the Lewis Structure. He also learned that Mark wasn’t as scary or strange he looked to be, he was just naturally aloof and somewhat completely opposite from Donghyuck himself. The bell rings which signal the end of the first period and Donghyuck continues to solve the rest of the problems on the page by himself, occasionally checking with Mark to see if it was correct.

 

“Aren’t you going to class yet?” Mark asks curiously.

 

Donghyuck hums, “I only have Foreign Language next, I’m doing pretty good in that class anyway...”

 

“Oh. But it’s been a solid class period, aren’t you like, tired? Mrs. Kang told me you get frustrated really easily.”

 

The younger is slightly embarrassed as he meekly replies, “N-No! It’s just that I don’t really understand the material in the beginning- all we do is read and not do actual problem solving or answering.”

 

Which wasn’t wrong, Mark had done just the same along with the shit ton of labs they had to finish within a week and a half at the most. The AP class was set at such a higher standard that he couldn’t even find the mercy to sympathize with other regular class students, but with Donghyuck it was a different story, he just needed to hear it from someone else who understood it better.

 

“Donghyuck you’ve been working for an hour straight, you need to rest your brain for a few minutes.”

 

Another thing he learned, was that Mark was apparently a genius and a walking book. Everything he said sounded smart and concise and even somewhat philosophical. Because it was true, Donghyuck was told that studying for 15 minutes at a time is the best thing to do because cramming your brain too much in one sitting would only prove detrimental. So he agrees and awkwardly follows Mark out in the hallway to grab a brief snack from the cafeteria. The younger tails him a bit hesitant when he notices some curious gazes land on him each time they passed a group of students, he remembers that Mark had some type of reputation and was somewhat of an enigma to the rest of the student body. Donghyuck opts to stand just a bit farther from Mark as he picks out a few bags of chips before going over to the snack line.

 

Mark turns to him as he takes out some change from his pocket, “I’m getting some cookies I guess and a drink. You need me to buy something with your cash?”

 

Donghyuck shakes his head furiously, “Nono- It’s fine- the chips are alright.”

 

The older blinks at him before shrugging, handing him the bags of chips and raising a brow in slight confusion when Donghyuck swiftly walks away from his side. The silence as they walk back to the Media Center feels suffocating to the younger boy, he glances at the clock and mentally sighs in relief when he realizes that it’s almost the last period of the day.

 

“I think. I think this is okay for now. I understand the material for this chapter, we can both go to class once the bell rings.”

 

Mark hums as he chews on his cookies, sitting down on his seat and casually leaning back to look at the courtyard on the other side of the glass.

 

“Hey Donghyuck, what color do you think looks prettiest?”

 

And he’s struck by surprise at the most random question but is equally terrified as he stares at the back of Mark’s obnoxiously blonde hair.

 

“I don’t really know... ” He trails off as his eyes lock on the back of Mark’s head, “I like, yellow I guess. Like the sun.”

 

He doesn’t react at Donghyuck’s answer, mumbling to himself as he grabs his backpack and slings it around his shoulders. He looks at Donghyuck mysteriously before a small smile graces his lips.

 

“I think, red is really pretty, it’s dark yet so vibrant- don’t you think? Anyway, class is over in a few minutes. I’ll be heading home now. We can meet here tomorrow again if you want… Or after school. I don’t have work tomorrow night.”

 

Mark doesn’t really think it’s necessary to say all that, but he does anyway. Donghyuck was interesting, somewhat shy but he can see the potential of him being a little different once he gets comfortable. He gets it, most people didn’t talk to him because of how stoic he looked apparently, so it doesn’t really affect him if he does it.

 

Donghyuck thinks over his statement and slowly packs his things, eyeing Mark’s retreating blonde head, he feels drawn to him somehow. Donghyuck sighs as he slings his bag over his shoulder, chewing his lip as he touches his locks and quietly makes his way towards his locker to grab his hoodie.

 

He mumbles to himself, “I can’t see the color red.”

  
  



	2. Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Donghyuck is crying, Mark’s heart is going a mile a minute as his words become white noise in his ears. The vibrant red that looks so beautiful in his hair was fading, but it became this color that he could only describe as the sunset. Because right behind the crying Donghyuck was the sunset, that same pretty color that lit up Mark’s monochrome world, but that wasn’t what stunned him the most. It was when hues of other reds and two other colors he didn’t know, began to show- all in little pale streaks amongst Donghyuck’s sunset locks.

Donghyuck takes it upon himself to find Mark every morning, it took him some strength to approach him a bit more freely and he learned along the way, that Mark loved reading but also didn’t talk much. So just as he did with his new classmates years ago, he bothered the older till he cracked, poking and nudging Mark as he read over his shoulder a few times. The older was surprised yet still tolerated him, waving him off dismissively and even leaving the younger with an over exaggerated pout towards Mark. It takes Donghyuck a grand total of two weeks to get to know him from inside and out, from his childhood in Canada and how his Canadian friends thought he died because he had disappeared then towards his history with the two ridiculous mutual friends; Renjun and Jaemin.

 

Today, Mark decided to give in to Donghyuck’s relentless nagging of getting a treat for passing his recent Chemistry quiz with an 87. To say that the boy was ecstatic was an understatement, he practically shoved the paper in Mark’s face and boasted about how amazing he did compared to everyone else’s. But Mark only chuckles and smiles at his antics.

 

“Yes Donghyuck. You’re amazing. I know.”

 

Donghyuck froze at that statement and gives him a look, “Ok Mr. Canada- not everyone is as great as you, alright.”

 

Mark laughs softly and rolls his eyes, “Would you like a treat for that?”

 

And that’s what led to their trip now, Donghyuck is walking just a little bit ahead of Mark in his little happy strut that Mark thought was pretty cute. It fitted his shy but sassy persona that mostly everyone complained about except for Mark himself, Donghyuck was a subject of fascination for him.

 

“Mark Lee.”

 

Mark blinks away from his daydreaming, “Lee Donghyuck?”

 

“What’s your favorite ice cream flavor?” He asks.

 

And Mark hesitates for the first time, or maybe second, who knows. He avoided a lot of questions that concerned anything remotely close to his colorblind world.

 

“Uh. Cookies and cream, what about you?”

 

Donghyuck slows to walk beside him and shrugs after a minute of thinking, “I don’t really have one. But why do you like cookies and cream?”

 

And for some reason, Mark feels at ease rather than going in an internal panic.

 

“Because it’s simple and not many people disagree with it. Everyone always argues when you say mint, chocolate or strawberry. I guess I just like the simplicity of it.”

 

Donghyuck hums and smiles at him, “Oh. Well I guess I like cookies and cream too. I think it’s really good, maybe it’ll be my favorite flavor too.”

 

For a moment, Mark swears he sees something in Donghyuck’s eyes. His breath hitches and he nervously blinks and licks his lip as his eyes veer away from the boy.

 

“Yeah.” Is all he says.

 

Donghyuck enters the ice cream shop with the widest baby smile ever, going right over to the glass display and pointing at the cookies and cream right away. Mark follows in a few seconds and feels for his wallet, pulling out the bills as Donghyuck orders away. He approaches somewhat behind the younger and asks the lady if he could get a bowl instead of a cone. Again, the boy looks at him weirdly.

 

“Why a bowl?”

 

“Because you get more ice cream in a bowl rather than a cone.”

 

“-Miss! Can you please make that two bowls!” He requests rather loudly.

 

For the first time in forever, Mark feels somehow self-conscious. Donghyuck actually paid attention to his every movement and decision, and Mark knew he wasn’t trying to be creepy, it was just him being that loudmouth ball of energy. They choose a seat right beside the window and Mark is lost in his thoughts again, Donghyuck carefully savors his bowl of ice cream and slyly watches the boy across him from time to time. And he thinks he’s nervous, but really Mark is just intensely curious because when Donghyuck looks up to catch him staring, Mark isn’t fazed. And it kinda creeps the younger out, considering that he was the one who usually did that to people.

 

“Mark Lee?”

 

“Hm?”

 

“You’re... staring.”

 

And Mark blinks as he finishes the rest of his ice cream bowl, looking away from the boy’s curious eyes, “Sorry. Daydreaming.”

 

“Oh.” And Donghyuck feels warm all over as he watches Mark lick up the remnants of the ice cream on the little spoon.

 

They stay in comfortable silence, Donghyuck feels elated and rewarded for the ice cream. Childish, yeah, but he loved it and Mark’s company anyway. He was fun to poke around, but he was yet to receive a major reaction from him.

 

“Mark?”

 

“Hyuck.”

 

The younger looks up and he swears his vision goes nuts when it suddenly becomes unfocused, he drops his spoon out of shock and Mark jolts, staring at him with slightly wide eyes.

 

“Hyuck. Donghyuck? Hey!”

 

Donghyuck was experiencing a color shift and to this day it still scared him, the pretty yellow of Mark’s hair began to fade and he looked at the older helplessly yet silently. Mark called out to him, ignoring the curious look of the woman behind the counter and slipping beside Donghyuck as he tries to take his attention. The boy is tearing up as he stares at Mark, unable to say anything in fear of being humiliated.

 

“Hyuck what’s wrong? Tell me. You don’t look okay. Hyuck. Donghyuck.”

 

All he hears is Mark repeating his name and so he listens to it as he says it over and over again. He could see the panic slowly showing in his grayscale eyes as he cups his cheeks, slightly wet with the minimal tears. Mark is still trying to understand what’s happening as he stares at his panic-stricken eyes, what was he thinking? Is he having an anxiety attack? An episode? A medical emergency? A thousand factors bounced in Mark’s brain as he stared at the younger’s inky black irises.

 

Had it changed just now? They didn’t look this dark earlier.

 

And Donghyuck is suddenly a soft sniffling mess as he pushes Mark’s hands away, shielding his face as he speed-walks out of the parlor. Mark blinks, brows furrowing as he quickly chases after the younger. He’s only walked about a store away when Mark jogs after him and grabs his arm.

 

“Lee Donghyuck look at me!”

 

The younger is tear-stricken as he forcibly turns around to stare at Mark, his cheeks flushed and lips pouty and sad.

 

“What?!”

 

“Why the hell are you running from me? Why can’t you tell me what’s wrong?” Mark’s words are loud and demanding, but laced with worry as he keeps his grip on his arm.

 

He just stares at Mark, that bright yellow is gone and is replaced with black and white. Everything was black and white and it hit him so hard that he couldn’t see any color at all. He rarely experienced a shift in his color vision, but when he did, it was usually because him or his fated half were caught in some emotional stress or trouble.

 

“I can’t see you, Mark! I can’t see you!”

 

He takes a minute, rapidly blinking as Donghyuck’s words sink in and it leaves him confused.

 

“Then who the hell are you looking at, huh?!”

 

Donghyuck is crying, Mark’s heart is going a mile a minute as his words become white noise in his ears. The vibrant red that looks so beautiful in his hair was fading, but it became this color that he could only describe as the sunset. Because right behind the crying Donghyuck was the sunset, that same pretty color that lit up Mark’s monochrome world, but that wasn’t what stunned him the most. It was when hues of other reds and two other colors he didn’t know, began to show- all in little pale streaks amongst Donghyuck’s sunset locks.

 

“Lee Donghyuck.”

 

The younger pauses his garble and stares at Mark with frustration evident in his eyes, “W-What?! Haven’t you been listening this whole time? I can’t see you! Mark- I can’t… I can’t see t-the colors… I can’t see it anymore.”

 

But Mark begins to understand, the grip he has on his arm loosens as it slides down to carefully cradle his shaky fingers.

 

“Hyuck. I can see you. And you’re so colorful, so pretty, so bright.” He says it so delicately, voice cracking as his eyes flit across Donghyuck’s vivid features.

 

“You can’t see the colors, can’t you? I can’t either. But I see you. For the first time.”

 

Donghyuck is stunned to silence as he stares at him with wide eyes, Mark dares to take a step closer as he stares at his eyes. Tears escape the younger’s eyes once more and he tries to pull away from him once again, but Mark makes sure to hold his shoulders firmly, unable to look away at the swirling in his irises. He understands it now, Donghyuck was experiencing a color shift like he just did, except it impacted him so deeply that he became afraid. Something he had forgotten to feel as he experienced it so differently, his color shifts are linked to his soulmate’s emotions.

 

“Can you see me now? Hyuck?”

 

The younger hiccups softly as his hands reach up to touch Mark’s hair, his eyebrows, cheeks, and right over his eyelids then down to his pastel blue shirt. His hair remained as dark as night, but his eyes are a deep brown, much like Jaemin’s caffeinated drink, filled with more emotions than he could ever account for.

 

“Y-You’re my…”

 

He feels that undeniable tug in his heart again like the first time he met him a month ago, except so much stronger. And Mark only nods silently, a sweet smile spreading on his lips as he cups Donghyuck’s tanned and shining cheeks to connect their foreheads. At first it may seem creepy, how closely Mark was staring at him. But the younger pays no regard as he too does the same, ogling his now colored features. For the first time in 18 years, he’s able to see all the colors in the world and the first person he shared it with is his soulmate.

 

“Donghyuck?”

 

“Y-yes?” He croaks, throat feeling scratchy from sobbing as Mark swipes his thumbs over his wet cheeks.

 

“We should watch fireworks one day. I’d love to see all the colors in this world with you, that everyone talks about. Let’s watch the sky after the rain and find the rainbow, maybe even re-create Ms. Kang’s chemistry experiment just to see the different colors of fire.”

 

Donghyuck nods so very eagerly as he hugs Mark’s torso, snuggling his face on his chest, to which Mark doesn’t mind at all. The younger murmurs shyly in response as Mark rubs soothing circles on his back.

 

“Yes, please. Keep my world colorful forever, promise?”

 

“I promise, Donghyuck.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a/n:
> 
> i listened to Dear, Dream and it made me so so angsty that i had to finish this.  
> also, if you guys don't understand what's fully going on with the color situation.. it's actually pretty funny? the colors that Mark and Haechan see do change according to emotions, but also changes the other's hair color.  
> since Haechan was feeling distressed, his color vision started to change along with Mark's hair. hence, the reason why Mark could only see the 'pretty red' that was Haechan's hair up until the end.  
> hair colors were by era too lol;; limitless --> we go up


End file.
